The BBC is to offer a refund to Strictly Come Dancing fans unhappy that Saturday's vote to evict a contestant was scrapped, as the number of complaints topped 1,800.

Last night the BBC head of entertainment production, Jon Beazley, told BBC2 Strictly spin-off show It Takes Two that if viewers felt strongly about the issue the corporation would "refund that call cost".

The BBC's about-turn late yesterday came after the corporation initially said that Saturday's Strictly votes for the three remaining contestants would be carried forward to this weekend's final on BBC1.

However, the BBC was forced to act after the number of complaints about Saturday's voting fiasco climbed from 200 yesterday morning to more than 1,800 by the end of the day.

Viewers sent 1,687 emails and 193 calls complaining, while further complaints were also made to Ofcom, the media regulator. An Ofcom spokesman said it would assess these in the light of the broadcasting code to ensure the audience had not been misled.

The furore began when singer Rachel Stevens, dancing with Vincent Simone, and presenter Lisa Snowdon, partnered by Brendan Cole, were awarded exactly the same score by the judges. This meant that no matter how much public support he received, Holby City actor Tom Chambers, together with dance partner Camilla Dallerup, could not be saved from the dance-off.

"[Saturday's] votes will count and that's really important. They have been registered on Saturday and will roll forward," Beazley told It Takes Two.

"What's also important to say as well is that if somebody is really unhappy about that and they feel very strongly that they want to have a refund from their voting last Saturday, then we will refund that call cost," he added.

In a separate statement issued last night, the BBC said it recognised that the Strictly voting fiasco was an "unprecedented situation" and added that details of how to claim a refund would be available on the show's website and via the corporation's audience service phone numbers from today.

"Following the unprecedented outcome of last Saturday's Strictly Come Dancing semi-finals, the BBC has been working on providing a solution for next week's final. We have worked in consultation with the production team, the remaining contestants and an independent adjudicator to determine the fairest outcome. During this process, fairness to the viewers who voted and the contestants themselves has been the guiding principle," the BBC added.

"We considered a wide variety of options including the scrapping of all votes from last week's show. It was felt, however, that this would not be fair to the contestants nor to those who had voted. Instead, it was agreed that the fairest option was to allow the combined scores of the judges and the audience to carry over to the first show of next week's two show final. This was confirmed by an independent adjudicator as the fairest option.

"In the interests of complete transparency we are taking the unprecedented step of revealing the marks allocated as a result of the audience vote from Saturday's show during the first of the two final shows. These scores will be added to those from the judges from last week.

"This combined score will be announced on the leader board at the top of the first show. Our three couples will then dance and the judges will score them. The audience will vote on those performances in the usual manner. These results will be added to the leaderboard and the couple with the lowest overall score will leave the competition. In the second show the remaining two couples will start from scratch and go head to head with a public vote to decide who will be crowned Strictly Come Dancing champion 2008. Only the viewing public will determine the winner.

"The BBC recognises that this has been an unprecedented situation and would like to thank viewers and the contestants for their understanding. We note that there have been 1,687 emails and 193 calls of complaint since Saturday night. We will be offering refunds to anyone unhappy about their votes in the semi-final who would like to be reimbursed for their calls. Details for how they can do this will be available on the Strictly Come Dancing website from Tuesday and on the usual BBC audience service numbers."

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